On Sunday morning I went to a church service for the first time in decades. I was there as a community member to support Pastor Seth Pickens of Zion Hill Baptist church in South Los Angeles. A few days before, I’d received an urgent pleafrom Teka-Lark Fleming, publisher of the local Morningside Park Chroniclenewspaper, encouraging progressive black folk to show up at Zion Hill in support of Seth’s pro-LGBTQ stance. [Read more]

Fr. John Dear, Dismissed from Jesuits: “It Is So Strange to Be Hated by So Many Church Leaders”

“This week, with a heavy heart, I am officially leaving the Jesuits after 32 years.” This was how Fr. John Dear announced his dismissal from the Jesuit order in his NCR column in January—a “divorce” (as Joshua McElwee put it that same week) that seemed to many to have been inevitable, if deeply regrettable. Dear, a widely respected peace activist, has been arrested over 75 times for civil disobedience, but it was his “obstinate disobedience” toward the directives of his Jesuit superiors that resulted in his dismissal. [Read more]

Forget About #HotJesus, Material Objects Speak Loudly in Son of God

Days before Jesus was nailed to a cross of wood, he entered Jerusalem to cheering crowds. He explained to his followers that if the people did not herald him, the rocks and the stones would cry out. A few nights later, he took bread and wine and announced that they were his body and his blood. A sign fastened to the cross declared him “King of the Jews” in various languages. [Read more]

A March 1 New York Times story examined the challenges for the U.S. and other nations working through the United Nations to promote LGBT equality as a human right, and their limited ability to influence countries like Uganda and Nigeria that are adopting stronger anti-gay laws. [Read more]

Mississippi Pastors Oppose Religious Freedom Bill

Five Baptist and Methodist pastors in Mississippi have written a letter to legislators there, opposing a religious freedom bill on the grounds that it would permit business owners to discriminate against customers. [Read more]

Gays Going to Hell According to “Expert” Witness in Michigan’s Gay Marriage Trial

I’m going to hell, folk. And so too are unrepentant others who engage in homosexual acts according to Douglas Allen, Canadian economist and expert (*coughs*) witness in Michigan’s gay marriage trial. [Read more]

True Detective’s Occult Conspiracy

With the last episode of the HBO series True Detective 8-part first season airing this Sunday it’s been fun to see writers take the opportunity to enumerate the show’s semi-obscure references. [Read more]

. . . and in other news and views . . .

David Silverman: CPAC is Crawling with Closet Atheists

I finally got to talk to That Atheist Guy, American Atheists President David Silverman. You’ve probably heard about his controversy at CPAC: First they let him and his atheist-advocacy group have a booth, then they begged off under pressure from nervous Christians), though Silverman himself was welcomed and is now allowed to prowl the halls, spreading his conservatism-without-Jesus gospel. [Read more]

Gay Hiring Fears Hurt Baptist Agency Fundraising

Uncertainty over a short-lived proposal to open employment to gays at Kentucky’s largest private child care agency prompted many of its supportive churches to withhold giving last year, causing a multi-million dollar shortfall. [Read more]